UND: Money Woes Put Law School At Risk

Funding, diversity obstacles on path to reaccreditation

A lack of adequate funding and ethnic diversity has cast a shadow of
uncertainty over UND's School of Law.

The school is going through its reaccreditation process with the American Bar
Association; law schools go through this process about every seven years. It's
also being considered for renewed membership with the Association of American
Law Schools, a desired status of law schools.

Until recently, with campus visitors sending the school a very optimistic
report last fall, reaccreditation appeared almost a certainty. "I can't tell you
anything that would tell us that our accreditation may be in jeopardy," Dean
Jeremy Davis said in October after receiving the favorable site-visit report.

Noncompliant

Davis still feels strongly the ABA will reaccredit the school, but his
optimism was tempered after he received the latest reports from the ABA and the
Association of American Law Schools. Most law schools are members of the AALS,
which isn't as important as ABA accreditation. AALS membership is more of a
scholarly recognition, while most states require degrees from ABA accredited
schools before people can take the bar exam.

The biggest concern with the ABA is the school's lack of funding.
In its letter -- dated Jan. 10 -- to Davis and UND President Charles Kupchella,
the ABA's accreditation committee stated the school's limited funding is not
compliant with ABA standards. The letter cites "the inadequacy of financial
resources available to support the law school's program of legal education,
which is having a negative and material effect on the education students
receive."

The school also needs more faculty members, according to the
AALS.

An area that is directly tied to that lack of funding is the inadequacy
of the school's law library.

"There are three ways we get funded," said Davis, adding that the school has
an annual budget of about $2.5 million. "Appropriations (legislative), soft
money (donations) and tuition." He said in comparisons to four similar schools
in South Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, UND's law school likely surpasses
only Montana in funding. South Dakota's law professors make an average of $5,000
more annually than North Dakota's. The budget numbers from the other schools
weren't available. The ABA didn't include what it felt was adequate funding. "We
have failed in all three areas," Davis said. "We haven't done much in fund
raising until this year. We haven't done much because we haven't had the staff
to do it." He said a fund-raising effort was able to net $1.3 million last year,
mention of which Davis will include in his November response to the ABA. Davis
said he plans to tell the ABA the school will continue to raise funds, but that
will require the addition of a full-time employee. He said he's also working on
securing space in O'Kelly Hall for a bigger law library.

Diversity

While the ABA did sternly advise the school to become more ethnically
diverse in its faculty and students, it didn't include a lack of
diversity as a noncompliant factor. The AALS, however, did list the school's
lack of diversity as one reason it doubts that the school complies with its
obligations of membership. It sent its compliance report to Kupchella and Davis
in November. Davis must send a response to the AALS next fall. Currently, there
are 194 students enrolled in the school. Ten -- six Native Americans, two Asians
and two Hispanics -- are considered minority.

The school has 15 faculty positions, two of which are occupied by Hispanics.
The school also has a Native American faculty member. There are six women
faculty members, accounting for about 40 percent of the total faculty. Davis
said the AALS concerns are primarily about the lack of black faculty, staff and
students. With the mostly white demographics of the area, Davis said it's
difficult to attract black people to the school. But he said the school must
find ways to address this issue. "What bothers me is we have standards to seek
diversity," Davis said. "We have been trying to do that, but it hasn't paid
off."

The school does reach out to Native areas by training tribal attorneys. It
also maintains a Center for American Indian Law, but the school has a "high
attrition" rate -- not listed in the report -- for minority students. Even among
surrounding Native areas, it's difficult to compete with schools with larger
budgets.

These schools can often attract bright minority students with complete
scholarships. UND can only offer partial scholarships, said Davis, adding that
the diversity issue is connected to funding.

A member of the School of Law's diversity committee, law professor Jim
Grijalva, said the school has another barrier in attracting Native students.
That barrier is UND's Fighting Sioux nickname, which often is considered
offensive by Native Americans. "We thought it was maybe one of the factors that
contribute to it," Grijalva said. "We have students who tell us it is a
factor." Davis said the name may discourage some students from attending UND.

The dean, however, said UND has a lot of benefits for local Native people and
others. The university is centrally located, less expensive than other law
schools, and boasts a strong curriculum, he said. He said the school must use
these factors to attract all potential students. The school, however, can do
more. "One of the things I'm thinking about is working with the tribal colleges
in helping them train their own lawyers," he said. Tribal attorneys don't need
to graduate from an ABA accredited school to practice law under tribal
governments. However, once they've graduated from a two-year program in a tribal
college and practiced law, they may want to attend the UND school. That way,
they can practice law both on and off reservations in the state.

Grijalva said the diversity committee is also looking into other factors to
recruit and retain minority students. One way is to increase scholarships, which
also requires increased funding. Increased funding and diversity are the big
sticking points, said Davis, who admits his 18-year tenure as the head of the
school could be part of the problem. Funding often increases when deans leave
their positions. It's difficult to attract a new dean when a school is
under-funded, he said. "The dilemma I have is that the school needs some type
of stable leadership to get through this," he said. "At the same time, we need a
shakeup, and the best way to do that is to step down." If it's necessary to
increase funding, Davis said, he will resign his position and just teach in the
school.

He feels, however, that the school will be reaccredited with the ABA and will
still be a member of the AALS.